Persona 3 the Movie 1: Spring of Birth

The first Person 3 film does many good things, but it's primarily held back by a major weakness: the source material itself. Despite its reputation as a video game, Persona 3 in terms of writing quality is not at all what one should call good, even if what makes an overall enjoyable game experience for fans inspires them to look at the story and characters with rose-tinted glasses.
Fortunately, the film does what it can to make common sense improvments. The most noteworthy is giving the main character, Makoto, a firmly defined personality, which comes hand in hand with foreshadowing for his significance in the plot ... and tension in his relationships with the other characters. Impressively, it does this while keeping him true to the general aesthetic impression he gives as a silent protagonist in the game.
Many elements are rearranged to create for a more coherent and interesting flow, such as more careful introduction of Junpei's feelings of inferiority and scenes with Fuuka prior to her subplot. Fuuka's subplot, however, is only mildly improved from the trainwreck it is in the original game. The main intrigue added is Makoto's indifference to the situation, giving him something to reflect upon throughout the event. Aside from this, all the other problems with the subplot are present such as the ghost story and investigation portion amounting to nothing, Fuuka being abruptly rescued with no meaningful obstacles, and everything ultimately boiling down to a crude survival situation solved through simple brute force without lasting meaning or consequence. Fuuka's tension with her friend evaporates simulatanously with the simple "beat the boss" style conflict.
While the art is generally strong with some great cuts throughout, many scenes would benefit from more motion or more complex composition work, especially when many characters are present at once, as it would have given a more lively and convincing feeling.
Ultimately, the film is a good replacement for the main story of the game, but the problems with the game itself are not overcome.

“The first card, numbered 0, is The Fool. It represents the beginning and suggests infinite possibilities.”

Adapting source material, especially from a game that can take literally a hundred or more hours to play, will always be an uphill battle. There is plenty of consideration of how much to leave in and how much to take. As I will discuss in my review of Spring of Birth, this can be a tough tightrope to walk, especially for millions of fans who eagerly anticipated it.

Before I begin, I will state my bias first. I am a HUGE fan of this franchise and absolutely adore Persona 3. ... I have beaten the game in its entirety and hold it very close to my heart. However, this is an adaption of a game that has 15+ hours of cutscenes and story. This movie only covers the first couple months of the game and there are three other movies that likely cover the rest of the games content.

One of the major criticisms I have of this adaptation is the first scene or so. Now this seems like a very petty nitpick, but I felt the opening here was a bit wasteful in comparison to the source materials. I know that adaptations have to change some things, however a good chunk of the characters they showed in the opening do not appear anywhere in the movie. Sure, fans of the game will know who they are but newcomers don’t. Very briefly, the opening of the original game had Yukari in a state of high anxiety from attempting suicide, while outside the crowd loudly creates white noise to heighten the turbulence Yukari was seemingly facing to the apathy of the outside world. It instantly grips the viewer and makes her character more easily sympathetic.

As for the movie, it has a random teen we have never seen jump in front of a subway. Sure, it is also a bit creepy and shocking, but there is much less weight since the movie doesn’t really have that character in it anymore. Regarding Yukari's scene, it has that scene as well but only shows it for a few seconds or so, missing the evocative and creepy feeling of the original game, which would be added onto by the rest of the game's themes and symbolism.

The last narrative complaint I have is some of the pacing. Yes, the adaption couldn’t possibly contain all the initial social links (those being characters you can interact with in the game in a self-contained arc from the rest of the story) that were there in the game. However, it only gives brief implications that he visited them or a small tidbit of them interacting with students. The movie rushes by the months, giving you the main plot points the game did (for the most part). I think they could have included a couple of scenes from some of the Social Links (for those who played the game, the old couple would have been a good choice as parental figures) to help enrich the narrative and themes of Persona 3.

Speaking of, staying very faithful to the overall story, themes and narrative (most of the time) was a big positive. Thematically, both the game and movie borrow from Evangelion (there being several Shadow bosses as trials, lakes of blood and hits of mental instability from the characters, red sashes that resemble NERV’s colour scheme and font, replacing cross imagery with coffins, etc). It still kept the story fairly mysterious as well as what the incident that happens many years ago. They also didn’t wuss out on the heavy suicidal themes/imagery with the evokers, which is great to see. A lot of the same lines from the game made it into the movie, which was very nice to see.

Since this is just the first couple of months, there won’t be much possible to be done with character development, so I will refrain from critiquing it too harshly. The biggest positive on the character front is from Yuki. This is a change I think that improves on the original, since in game, he was a silent protagonist with a vague backstory. However, we see him grow from largely indifferent at the start to slowly but surely caring about his comrades. The side characters have all the key scenes that they did in the game; Yukari got fairly emotional (though not at the Main Character typically) and gave some insight to her own dead father, Junpei got jealous of Yuki because he is the protagonist, Shinjiro looked after our main characters from getting into serious trouble, etc.

What really stood out to me was Fuuka surprisingly enough. Sure, a good portion of her arc was in the first couple of months, but this is another aspect that I felt was improved from the game’s narrative. We get a bit more character from Fuuka whenever the protagonist continuously keeps helping her out after Natsuki’s gang bullies her. It manages to capture the heart and emotion that the source material had rather well and it builds to an amazing boss battle sequence at the end that furthers both the development of her character (while giving us a tear-jerking scene with Natsuki) along with Makoto, fighting for his own friends survival when he barely cared about his own at the start of the movie (though when the hell did he learn to ride a motorcycle?).

Lastly, I will discuss the best part of this whole movie: the animation and (mostly) sound. This movie looks AMAZING. The animation is fluid, crisp and the characters look great, even though I have preferences to Yukari’s older character design. The bright and murky greens, the overpowering yellow, the ethereal and lush pinks of the cherry blossoms in Gekkoukan High... It is amazing seeing these scenes (which had some animation in FES but was rather dated and low quality) come to life and done so faithfully. Much of the OST is reused tracks from the original game's soundtrack, but the new tracks are great additions, adding ample emotion and weight to the last quarter of the movie. The only disappointment here (and this is pretty nitpicky) is that I kinda wished the Evokers gun had a bit more oomph to it like the game had, where it sounded like a real gun had been fired. Minor point, yes, but it does add to that unsettling feeling of them actually attempting suicide everytime they use their Personas.

Summary: Persona 3 Spring of Birth is a rather well done adaptation of the first couple of months of the game. Some may find it cash-grabby to stretch this out into four movies, but I’m fine with it as Persona 3 was a huge game. It touched on a lot of the same themes, metaphors and symbolism of death that the source material had while giving a faithful recreation of the events that happened in the game. It made some improvements to the protagonist and some side characters, features some impressive animation with very good art direction, memorable songs from the game as well as some good new ones and managed to fit the first two months of the game into an hour and thirty minutes, despite some pacing issues. I would recommend this to fans of the games more than I would for newcomers. To those new to P3, I would start off with the game (Persona 3 FES) and then watch the movie(s).

(Side note: Happy 20th anniversary, Persona!)

"Time never waits. It delivers all equally to the same end. You, who wish to safeguard the future, however limited it may be... You will be given one year; go forth without falter, with your heart as your guide..."

Hey a game that LA "kinda" played!

Little bit of detail about LA and Persona 3, so LA kinda played the game more specifically Persona 3 FES (worse vers. LA knows) for a while and by a while, LA meaning up to where Persona 3 the Movie 1: Spring of Birth ended at, the biggest problem is, LA doesn't know where LA is afterwards and so LA thought to jog LA's memories of Persona 3 with the series of movies of Persona 3 and for Persona 3 the Movie 1: Spring of Birth, it was kinda a nostalgia trip to say the least and ALREADY wanting ... for LA to go back to the game.

Persona 3 the Movie looks at one Makoto Yuki voiced by Akira Ishida who gets recruited into the SEES when his Persona awakens to fight the Shadow at the Dark Hour. Persona 3 the Movie 1: Spring of Birth looks at some of the more major plotlines of the game while omitting many of the game's extras elements and for good reasoning for a game that reaches 100 to 200 hours of content, yeah LA can see why they omitted some of the extra elements and stuck to the main plot.

Character-wise, Makoto Yuki as the main protagonist, well like Yukari put it in this movie, well he's kinda a stoic, "take orders" kind of protagonist and he really doesn't have a personality, yes we have some vague backstory and development form him in this movie but him as a character...he's kinda bland BUT LA knows he's gonna get better and he showed it near the end of the movie!. Now the Persona series has *ahem* Waifu Wars and well LA used to like Mitsuru Kijirou voiced by Rie Tanaka, the ojou yet badass student council president but LA changed to Yukari Takeba voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi as not only did Yukari have more screentime but her personality does nicely clash with Makoto and her having some voice of reason which LA liked due to Junpei Iori voiced by Kousuke Toriumi and in a ways Makoto not exactly right of mind in a sense. Akihiko Sanada voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa was pretty cool, being the brawler of the group and the other voice of reason and somewhat being suave about it and lastly, Fuuka Yamagishi voiced by Mamiko Noto had a good character development especially since LA really doesn't like the entire "shy girl opens up to break out of it" scenario and playing it up in a ways. If LA had to choose, LA's favorite character is...Yukari along with Fuuka.

Plot-wise, due to the movie skipping lots of time just to get into the more major events of the game, does feel like it's rushing BUT, where the plot feels great is actually how much time they take on those major events and that helps with it's characters as such, the time skips are kinda annoying but it's the major events where the plot takes it's time and fleshes things out.

Now, LA doesn't really talk soundtracks, but the movie USES the game's OST! and that only helps the adaptation even more especially from such a series like Persona where they have some jamming music and Persona 3 is no different, another words, keeping the OST of the game intact was a brilliant decision. On the voice acting side of things, LA will give some props to Akira Ishida as Makoto but the real MVP's for LA goes to both Megumi Toyoguchi and Mamiko Noto along with Miyuki Sawashiro as the snarky Elizabeth if LA had to stretch it. Voice cast were reprised from the game and LA thanks the movie for it...even if LA played Persona 3 in English Dub but whatever.

In the animation department, done by AIC A.S.T.A, the animation was very atmospheric to say the least especially in it's backgrounding especially when it hits the Dark Hour and of course it feels like the game right down to it's much more polished character designs and the decent battles, yeah the battles might be more on the Personas duking it out or throwing magic at the Shadows but it's still decent nonetheless.

Persona 3 the Movie 1: Spring of Birth does change somethings from the game but LA will also defend this as one, doing things right down to the letter from the game, well LA might as well play the game and get the entire experience that way and two they aren't THAT much of a huge change as by the end of it, the results are the same as the game soooo...LA doesn't see this as something of a major flaw.

Persona 3 the Movie 1: Spring of Birth isn't a horribly bad video game to anime adaptation with the biggest worries of going onto the next movie of Persona 3 being Makoto's personality needs a bit of a tune up which this first movie near the end is already mending and the "rushing" which it isn't due to it taking it's time with the much more serious and major plotlines in better detail and changing some moments doesn't exactly change a whole lot either. LA liked watching Persona 3 the Movie 1: Spring of Birth, not only because it was a sorta nostalgia trip but this movie kinda did it's job in trying to get LA back into Persona 3 and that is more than enough for LA to get LA's approval of this movie, it has it's flaws yes but LA can see past it and the movie experience for LA was enjoyable. As for getting back into the game, well LA kinda want to finish the rest of the Persona 3 movies first.

Spring moves into Midsummer...

Spring of Birth is the first in the series of anime films that adapt the story of Persona 3. I was worried when I initally watched it, about how they were going to take an overarching video game story, and split it up into four 90 minute movies. The end result isn't perfect; this first movie definitely has pacing issues. Specifically, it feels akin to a drawn out "set-up" prologue that just explains the world and what the hell things like the dark hour and shadows are. Which is basically what it is--this first movie adapts the first portion of the game's story, up to ... the point when Fuuka joins the SEES. In an attempt to turn what would've been "exposition - the movie" into an a movie that can stand by itself, they put focus onto both the development of Makoto (the protaganist), an an unusually apathetic guy who doesn't care if he lives or die, and the substory in Persona 3 surrounding Fuuka's bullying problems.

They set up Fuuka's bully issues with Natsuki, as well as the overgrowing issue that Makoto struggles to (or rather just can't) feel emotions, as the throughlines of the movie. The two intertwine, and form a pretty decent overarching narrative that gets resolved by the movie's end. The end result, while not perfect, works well enough, and results in a deeply entertaining adapation; it sets up the world of Persona 3 itself, and the base premise, while wrapping up it's own internal conflicts, so that things to normality for the protaganists for the sequel.

Honestly, I feel like most critics and fans are too harsh on this movie. It's often critised for it's slow crawl in the overarching P3 story. But most people either overlook or disregard the movie's connected story themes of suicide, teenage bullying, & psychological apathy towards death, which form a complete resolution by it's closer; albiet a resolution that is simply a substory in the greater narrative of Persona 3. The notion that this movie "has no plot" or "has nothing going for it" is absolute hogwash, to be honest.

I adore the way they adapted Makoto's "silent protaganist" character, I also think the atmophere of the movie works extremely well. Fuuka is one of my favourite P3 characters, and her bullying issues; as well as Makoto's character arch too, fit extremely well with Persona 3's blatant symbolism surrounding teenage sucide (Persona users need to "shoot themselves" in the head with their evokers to summon their personas). All in all, it comes together to form a very decent movie, that is essentinally a "mean girl" bullying storyline set in a world full of supernatural goings on, where the bullying gets dragged into the events the protaganist & co. are going through. It can stand on its own, seperate from both it's sequels and the game it was adapted from. It's far from the best written example of a bully storyline, but honestly, the relationship between Fuuka and her bully by the end of the movie legitimately touched me; not to spoil anything.

I'd legitimately recommand this to anyone who wants a movie that deals with that kind of thing, even if they're a none Persona fan. Just bare in mind that it's story isn't complete, as it's one big overarching story spread over it and it's three sequels.

This is an old title but I've just recently watched and I wanted to write something. This movie is based on the cult game Persona 3, and as such follows the event of the game.
This first movie follows the first "arc" of the game, until a certain rescue happens. First thing you notice when the movie begins is the art, it's definitely movie quality and still holds up greatly in 2021, it's clear that a lot of money was put into it. Action scenes are really good looking but most of the time you'll only see people walking or talking, which is expected but dissappointing ... notheless.
The story is pretty average, you have typical teenagers with super powers that go to school by day and fight to protect the world at night, more emphasis could be put in how they balance their daily life with the task of saving the world, but nothing of that sort happens here. They don't have any trouble at all managing both lifes.
The characters are below average, they are still not developed at all in this movie and the protagonist only has two sides, being silent or rude and sarcastic. The supporting cast is even worst as they only follow typical anime cliches, there's the funny dumb guy, there's the girl, there's the smart rich girl, there's the cool but also dumb guy and the shy girl.
The music used in the movie is pretty mediocre, the game had good tracks but they don't fit well in a movie. The beggining was specially cringe-inducing as the song "Burn my dread" performed while the protagonist was on a train doing nothing.
Overall, I enjoyed this movie. As a fan of the game I was already prepared for something mediocre, but fun, and as many movies based on videogames, there's no reason to watch this if you don't know the source material. As a standalone film is incomplete and average at best.